Why blame for Stirling Council's plan for devastating music tuition cuts lies in Edinburgh

A plan to cut £250,000 from school music tuition funding in Stirling – which campaigners say would “effectively mean the end of over 60 years of instrumental and vocal teaching – has run into some heavyweight opposition. And rightly so.

Emmy award-winning composer John Lunn, who attended Stirling High School and is known for his work on TV shows Downton Abbey, The White Queen and Shetland, said it was “extremely disappointing and short-sighted... that the current level of funding is being threatened at all rather than increased given the value that it adds to children’s education”.

Jeffrey Sharkey, principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, also criticised the proposed cuts to the service, saying that once music tuition was lost, it was “very hard to restore”. He stressed he was concerned about the situation not just in Stirling but “across other local authorities in Scotland”.

Learning a musical instrument can have life-long benefits (Picture: Daniel Leal) | AFP via Getty Images

SNP austerity

In normal times, it would be the council planning the cuts that would feel the heat of campaigners’ wrath. However, Stirling Council is facing a budget shortfall of some £13 million next year, and this is just one of several “difficult decisions” it is being forced to consider. Other planned cuts include £214,000 from school counselling funds, £129,000 from the additional support needs outreach team, and £63,000 from the education psychology service.

The background to their plight is years of underfunding of local councils by Scottish Government ministers, who have been making councillors’ jobs increasingly difficult so that their lives are easier and they can announce headline-grabbing spending plans that make them look good.

Despite this, before the arrival of a multi-billion-pound bonanza as a result of Labour’s first UK Budget, the SNP government had been scrambling to make swingeing cuts because of their own mismanagement and incompetence.

Music has long played a central part in Scottish culture, and this country has punched well above its weight in the modern music scene. Music also has proven benefits for mental health.

If schools stop teaching children how to play an instrument because of “SNP austerity”, this country will lose something that is important to its very soul.